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Mondo: The Mad Mask Misappropriator
"Mondo: The Mad Mask Misappropriator" is the 31st of 35 Darkwing Duck comic stories published in the Disney Adventures magazine. Although the entire story was published at once, it is a three-parter, each part respectively subtitled as follows: "Chapter One: From Triumph to Tragedy", "Chapter Two: A Mallard Unmasked!", and "Chapter Three: The Old and the Bold". Summary Darkwing Duck, Launchpad, and Gosalyn are doing some volunteer work for a superhero retirement home. Gosalyn thinks it's boring, for which Darkwing reprimands her, explaining that most of them don't even want to be retired. They were shamed out of the hero business by Mondo, a hunter who has built his career around defeating heroes, revealing their identities, and taking their masks as trophies. Darkwing fears him too, although he is too proud to admit it. Coincidentally, Darkwing is Mondo's next target. His will be mask #982 in Mondo's collection, after which the hunter plans to retire. he sets up a trap at the St. Canard Opera House, where he pretends to be a robber to lure Darkwing to him. The hero takes the bait hook, line, and sinker. He evades a net Mondo throws at him as he decends from the Thunderquack, but mistakes a fake paw for Mondo's and jumps on it. The fake paw is attached to a stick dangling from the wall on a spring, from which Darkwing can't readily climb back onto the roof. Mondo is waiting for him right next to the trap, holding himself up on a rope, and easily takes the purple mask. Trying to escape, Darkwing launches himself away against one op the opera house's giant decorative masks and is knocked unconscious. Mondo goes after him to finish the job by exposing Darkwing's bare face to the public below. Improvising, Gosalyn picks up the cake that had been meant for the retired heroes, gets Launchpad to fly closeby, and throws the dessert in her father's face to hide it. Mondo becomes aware that Darkwing has backup, something he didn't count on, and decides that the mask is enough to take from this hunt. He leaps off the building and uses his spring-shoes to hop away to safety. His secret identity may be saved, but Darkwing still feels the loss of his mask. In fact, he refuses to come home without one, so he climbs into one of the opera house's mask and has Launchpad attach it to the Thunderquack. At home, Drake considers retiring, but a remark about his ego by Gosalyn gives him an idea to defeat Mondo and reclaim his honor. He, Launchpad, and Gosalyn make their way to St. Canard City Hall to hold an interview. Darkwing wears a new mask and tells the cameras that Mondo only stole his auxiliary mask. He adds that he'll sooner catch Mondo than that the hunter will obtain the real mask. As planned, Mondo watches the news, which he expects to be about his victory over Darkwing Duck and not the hero himself taunting him. Furious, he makes his way to City Hall and swings onto the scene from a rope attached to the roof. He gets Darkwing's other mask, but to his annoyance, there's a third one underneath. Not to be beaten, Mondo swings back and gets into a fight with Launchpad and Darkwing. This is all part of Darkwing's grand plan, as the hunter now is away from his trophy van. This gives Gosalyn the opportunity to break in, steal back all 982 masks Mondo ever stole, and return them to their rightful owners. Mondo, however, has an alarm installed in his van and finds the protection of his masks more important than getting the final one from Darkwing. He escapes from the fight and arrives at his property just in time to catch Gosalyn. It looks bad for the child until Darkwing shows up and attack Mondo, giving her another chance to get away. As Darkwing and Mondo fight, Gosalyn runs back to City Hall, Launchpad, and the Thunderquack to return to the retirement home. The heroes, however, are pessimistic about their odds against Mondo after having already been beaten ones and not having done anything heroic ever since. Gosalyn and Launchpad counter that not trying is a guaranteed loss for Darkwing, who admires them, and a guaranteed final win for Mondo. All this considered, the heroes agree to don their masks again and team up to save Darkwing. They arrive just too late to prevent Mondo from stealing Darkwing's third mask, but timely enough to put some fear into the hunter. Mondo sees that his odds aren't good against all heroes together and tries to hop to safety once more, but Darkwing attaches a chain between a fire hydrant and his boot springs. Mondo loses his shoes and falls back down for all heroes to severely beat him up. When they're done and have the villain wrapped up in a net, Mondo tries to take his victory from the fact he has still unmasked all of them. Darkwing disputes this and reveals that he'd been wearing two more masks all this time: one head-encasing mask looking like his face and the regular purple mask underneath. As the heroes leave, ready to get back to crimefighting thanks to Darkwing's help and faith in them, Mondo grumblingly promises to collect stamps from now on. Cast Quotes : "GOSALYN! I demand you show them as much respect as you would me. ...Er, better make that more respect than you show me!" :— Darkwing on respect. : "Normally, I'd save the most dangerous trophy for last! But Darkwing Duck's card fell out of my catalog, and I didn't find it until spring cleaning!" :— Mondo. : "Darkwing Duck, right on schedule! I admire that! You may be a klutz, but you are punctual." :— Mondo. : "Pop, doesn't this seem a trifle obvious? As in "Look out! It's a trap!"?" : "A trap? Ha! I've done this hundreds of times... and only a relatively small percentage turned out to be traps!" :— Darkwing should learn to listen to Gosalyn. : "If you don't put me down, one of us is gonna be in deep, deep trouble! Ulp! And I hope it isn't me!" :— Gosalyn vs Mondo. : "GRRR! This time I won't be satisfied with just your mask as a trophy! This time I'll want your pants, too!" : "The fool! I don't wear pants!" :— Mondo and Darkwing about pants. Notes References * The superhero in the wheelchair is based on the Rocketeer, a 1982 superhero who got to star in a Disney movie in 1991. Milestones * This comic marks the first appearance of Mondo, a whole bunch of superheroes, the trophy van, and the St. Canard Opera House. Errors * For some reason Gosalyn's arms and face are the sandy color they should be, but her bottom is consistently colored plain white. * The story seems to not have a clear idea what it wants the retired superheroes to be. The prominent ones, at least, are drawn as old people, connecting their retirement to their age. However, the story insists their retirement is a result of Mondo's actions, which should have nothing to do with their age. Other * Mondo is highly like Wiley Wildebeest, a villain introduced in the 1990-1991 Mickey Mouse Adventures comics. The only noteworthy differences are that Wiley hunts rare animals (and aliens) while Mondo goes for superheroes and that Wiley is a tiger whereas Mondo is a cheetah. External links * Mondo: The Mad Mask Misappropriator at I.N.D.U.C.K.S. Category:Disney Adventures